Creating and Enhancing Digital Astro Images

By: Grant Privett

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Paperback | 21 March 2007

At a Glance

Paperback
156 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
23.4 x 15.7 x 1.0

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The book will, in jargon-free blow-by-blow terms, describe how to create the best astronomical images you can with the digital camera equipment at your disposal. It will explain the steps we go through to extract results from the raw-and-dirty original imagery, and then transform them into high quality pictures that you could hang on your wall.

The advent of CCDs, and more recently inexpensive webcams, has led to a much greater proportion of amateur astronomers becoming involved in digital imaging. The low price of the new Meade Deep Sky Imager - $299 (2005) - suggests that within a few years a simple digital camera will become a standard accessory for any telescope.

To summarise; this is a book that tells practical astronomers (and that includes some but not all professionals) what is needed to get from standing in the dark with a telescope and a camera, to showing your spouse, local society friends or even supervisor the astonishing images that can be obtained with simple equipment but the right software and knowledge of how to use it.

Industry Reviews

From the reviews:

"This book is packed with sound practical advice about digital imaging. ... The book is aimed at beginners and experts ... . there is plenty of information in this book and it gives an excellent general overview of the subject." (Pete Lawrence, BBC Sky at Night, August, 2007)

"This recent addition to Patrick Moore's Practical Astronomy series is chock-full of helpful tips for anyone considering attaching a camera to a telescope. ... I highly recommend it for beginners or for advanced imagers who concentrate on one photographic discipline and need an introduction to the other ones." (Sean Walker, Sky & Telescope, November, 2007)

"Privett has certainly packed a bundle of useful information into one hundred and fifty pages, with hardly an equation in sight! ... His advice is both relevant and concise and clearly reflects years of practical experience ... . There is a good index at the back as well as useful appendices on hardware and software, and a helpful list of acronyms and abbreviations ... . I got a good feeling from this book - a nice blend of genuine enthusiasm and expert knowledge comes clearly across." (Gerard Mc Mahon, Astronomy and Space, December, 2007)

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You Can Find This Book In

Non-Fiction Science Astronomy, Space & Time Computing & I.T.Digital Lifestyle & Online World: Consumer & User Guides Digital Photography Consumer User Guides Arts & Entertainment Photography & Photographs Photographic Equipment & Techniques Nature & The Natural World Popular Astronomy & Space Physics

Applied Physics Astrophysics

The Joy of Image Processing	p. 1
A Digital Image - The Basics	p. 3
Choosing Your Camera	p. 9
Acquiring Images	p. 19
What Is Best for...	p. 27
The Moon and Planets	p. 27
Deep Sky	p. 29
Aurora and Meteors	p. 30
The Sun	p. 31
Comets	p. 32
Displaying Images	p. 35
Image Reduction	p. 37
The Importance of Dark Frames	p. 37
Taking Your Dark Frames	p. 40
Creating Master Darks	p. 41
Flat-Fields	p. 44
Processing Your Flat-Field	p. 47
Bias Frames	p. 48
Image Transformations	p. 50
Image Stacking	p. 51
Image Mosaicing	p. 56
Automated Image Reduction	p. 61
Image Handling	p. 63
Histograms	p. 65
Brightness Scaling	p. 67
False Color Rendition	p. 71
Other Techniques	p. 75
Statistics	p. 75
Fits Editor	p. 76
Pixel Editing	p. 77
Bloom and Fault Correction	p. 77
Night Visualization	p. 79
Profiles	p. 79
Isophotes	p. 79
Polar Representation	p. 79
Bas Relief and 3D	p. 81
Blinking	p. 82
DDP	p. 84
Edge Detectors	p. 84
Masks and Blending	p. 86
Image Enhancement	p. 87
Background Gradient Removal	p. 88
Image Sharpening	p. 91
Image Smoothing	p. 92
Median Filtering	p. 93
Unsharp Masking	p. 95
Image Deconvolution	p. 97
Handling Color Images	p. 101
Acquiring Color Composites	p. 101
Processing Color Composites	p. 104
Achieving Color Balance	p. 106
Narrow-Band Filter Composite Images	p. 108
Handling Image Sequences	p. 113
Image Acquisition	p. 113
Image Quality Techniques	p. 115
Astrometry and Photometry	p. 121
The Problems	p. 127
Postscript	p. 129
Notes on Image Contributors	p. 131
Appendix	p. 133
Software	p. 133
Hardware	p. 137
Further Reading	p. 138
Acronyms and Abbreviations	p. 139
Index	p. 141
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

Creating and Enhancing Digital Astro Images

At a Glance

Paperback

Industry Reviews

Shipping

How to return your order

Defective items

You Can Find This Book In

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